In this section

CHAPTER XVIII.

UNDERGROUND LONDON: ITS RAILWAYS, SUBWAYS, AND SEWERS.

"Thus far into the bowels of the land
Have I rode on."

Proposal of a Scheme for Underground RailwaysDifficulties and Oppositions it had to encounterCommencement of the UndertakingIrruption of the Fleet DitchOpening of the Metropolitan RailwayInflux of Bills to Parliament for the Formation of other Underground
LinesAdoption of the "Inner Circle" PlanDescription of the Metropolitan Railway and its StationsThe "Nursery-maids' Walk"A
Great Triumph of Engineering SkillExtension of the Line from Moorgate StreetThe East London RailwayEngines and Carriages, and
Mode of LightingSignallingVentilation of the TunnelDescription of the Metropolitan District RailwayWorkmen's TrainsThe
Water Supply and Drainage of LondonSubways for Gas, Sewage, and other Purposes.

As we are now at Paddington, which is the
common centre of three railways, and, in a certain
sense, was the birth-place of the Great Western and
the Metropolitan lines, it may be well to descend
the steps which lead to one of the platforms of the
latter company, and to ask our readers to accompany us, mentally, of course, in a "journey
underground."

The overcrowding of the London streets, and the
consequent difficulty and danger of locomotion,
had been for many years a theme of constant
agitation in the metropolis. Numberless plans
were propounded for the relief of the over-gorged
ways in connection with the vehicular circulation
of the streets. New lines of streets were formed,
and fresh channels of communication were opened;
but all to little purpose. The crowd of omnibuses,
cabs, and vehicles of all descriptions in our main
thoroughfares remained as dense and impassable
as ever. At length it was proposed to relieve
the traffic of the streets by subterranean means;
and in the end a scheme was propounded "to
encircle the metropolis with a tunnel, which was to
be in communication with all the railway terminiwhether northern, or eastern, or western, northwestern, or south-westernand so be able to
convey passengers from whatever part of the
country they might come to whatever quarter of the
town they might desire to visit, without forcing them
to traverse the streets in order to arrive there."

"Such a scheme," writes a well-known author,
"though it has proved one of the most successful
of modern times, met with the same difficulties
and oppositions that every new project has to
encounter. Hosts of objections were raised; all
manner of imaginary evils were prophesied; and
Mr. Charles Pearson, like George Stephenson
before him, had to stand in that pillory to which
all public men are condemned, and to be pelted
with the missiles which ignorance and prejudice
can always find ready to their hands. The project
was regarded with the same contempt as the first
proposal to light our streets with gas; it was the
scheme of a 'wild visionary:' and as Sir Humphrey
Davy had said that it would require a mound of
earth as large as Primrose Hill to weigh down the
gasometers of the proposed new gas-works, before
London could be safely illuminated by the destructive distillation of coal, so learned engineers were
not wanting to foretell how the projected tunnel
must necessarily fall in from the mere weight of
the traffic in the streets above; and how the
adjacent houses would be not only shaken to their
foundation by the vibration caused by the engines,
but the families residing in them would be one and
all poisoned by the sulphurous exhalations from
the fuel with which the boilers were heated."

After years of hard work and agitation, confidence in the undertaking at length gained ground,
and the scheme was set on foot about the year
1860. The Great Western Railway, with the view
of obtaining access for their traffic to the City,
came forward with 200,000 as a subscription to
the enterprise; while the Corporation of the City
of London, finding that the new lines of streets
were comparatively useless as a means of draining
off the vehicles from the main thoroughfares, also
agreed to subscribe a similar sum to ensure the
accomplishment of the object. Up to this time
the shares in the undertaking had been at a low
discount; and the low price, indeed, continued
even after both the City and the Great Western
Company had subscribed. The shares gradually
attained higher prices as the prospects of opening
the line increased; but after the opening they
rose so rapidly as to promise an enormous return
to the promoters.

From a brochure, entitled "The Metropolitan
Railway," published in 1865, we learn that
"during the construction of the Underground line,
the meandering stream of the Fleet ditch had to be
crossed at least three times, before its cloacinal
flood was diverted from its previous course. Bellmouthed tunnels had to be made, so as to bring
two subterranean borings into one; and stations,
which were merely enormous cellars built deep
underground, had to be illuminated by the light
of day. Moreover, new forms of engines and
carriages had to be designedengines which
would evolve neither smoke nor steam, and
carriages which could be lighted by gas, so that
the usual unpleasant atmosphere and obscurity of
railway tunnels might be avoided. Further, it was
necessary to devise a special system of signals in
connection with the line, upon which it was intended that train after train should succeed one
another, with but a few minutes' intervals, throughout the day." In spite of a variety of difficulties,
including an irruption of the Fleet ditch in the
neighbourhood of King's Cross, the permanent way
was opened for passenger traffic from Paddington
to Farringdon Street on the 10th of January, 1863.
It was calculated that over 30,000 persons were
carried over the line in the course of the day.
Indeed, the desire to travel by this line on the
opening day was more than the directors had provided for, and from nine o'clock in the morning till
past midday it was impossible to obtain a place in
the up or Cityward line at any of the mid-stations.
In the evening the tide turned, and the crowd at
the Farringdon Street station was as great as at the
doors of a theatre on the first night of some popular
performer. At first the directors of the Great
Western undertook the management of the line,
but such differences soon arose between the two
companies that, some seven months afterwards,
the Great Western directors gave notice that in
two months they would cease to continue their
carriages upon it, and on the 1st of August following they reduced the notice as to their secession
from the management of the line to ten days. In
the short interval left to the Metropolitan Company to undertake the conduct of the traffic,
engines and carriages had to be hired from what
other railway companies were able and willing to
supply them. Accordingly, on the 10th of August,
1863, the Metropolitan Company commenced working the line themselves, and have since continued
to do so. "The traffic, indeed, by the Underground Railway," says the writer of the abovementioned work, "is of so special and peculiar a
character as to cause it to differ totally from all
other railways, and to make it require a distinct
management. The attention of the authorities in
connection with large systems of railways is devoted
chiefly to what is called the 'long-traffic' element;
whereas, the Metropolitanbeing essentially a
'short-traffic' line, and the numbers carried upon
it being so great, as well as the trains so numerous
throughout the dayneeds an amount of care and
continual supervision in its working, which could
not possibly be given by the officers of those lines
where trains are in the habit of succeeding one
another at comparatively lengthened intervals. It
is, therefore, much to the public advantage that
the Underground Railway should be worked by
the company itself, and that an organised staff of
officials should be specially trained and maintained
for the duty."

So great was the success of the Metropolitan
Railway, from the very day of its inauguration,
that in the next session of Parliament there was
such an influx of bills for the proposed formation
of railway lines in connection with the new form of
transit in the metropolis, that it was found that
"nearly one-half of the City itself would have to
be demolished if the majority of the plans were
carried out, and that almost every open space of
ground or square in the heart of the metropolis
would have to be given up for the erection of
some terminus, with its screaming and hissing
locomotives. The consequence was that a Committee of the two Houses was formed to take the
whole of the metropolitan schemes into consideration, as well as to determine what general plan
should be adopted, in order to unite together the
various threads of the railway lines converging
towards the capital, and forming the principal
fibres of that great web of iron highways which
had been spun over the country since the opening
of the Liverpool and Manchester line in 1830.
Accordingly, after deliberating for some time upon
the matter, the Legislature came to the determination to adopt what is now known as the 'inner
circle' plan of Mr. Fowler (the engineer of the line
of which we are treating), and to recommend the
carrying out of an 'outer circle' also."

On the first opening of the Underground Railway
the line extended only from Bishop's Road, Paddington, to Farringdon Street; and in the course
of a twelvemonth the number of passengers by it
amounted to nearly 9,500,000, or, in round numbers, more than three times the entire population
of the capital; but this number was almost doubled
in the course of two years. Since the extension
of the line, which we shall presently notice, the
number of passengers who have availed themselves of this means of transit has amounted to
nearly fifty millions annually.

The number of trains running upon this line is
about 350 on week days, and 200 on Sundays;
and they travel at intervals of five to ten minutes,
between the hours of 5.15 a.m. up to midnight.

The original terminal point of this railway, as we
have stated above, was at Bishop's Road. The
station here adjoins the terminus of the Great
Western line, and there is a covered way for passengers leading from the one station to the other.
Between Bishop's Road and Edgware Road the
Underground Line, being extended westward, now
takes a semi-circular sweep round the western
extremity of London, by way of Notting Hill Gate,
Kensington, Sloane Square, and Westminster, and
so on by a tunnel along the Victoria Embankment
to Blackfriars and the Mansion House Station in
Cannon Street.

Passing eastward from Bishop's Road, the line,
in the course of half a mile, reaches the Edgware
Road Station, where are workshops for the repair of
the company's engines and carriages. Unlike most
of the stations on this route, that at Edgware Road
has the advantage of being open and above ground.
From Edgware Road another half-mile or so of
tunnel eastward brings the passenger to the Baker
Street Station. The entrances to this station are in
Baker Street, on either side of the Marylebone Road,
broad flights of stairs leading down to the platforms; this part of the station, with the line itself,
being immediately under the roadway. Great ingenuity is displayed in the construction of this
station, for although so deep underground, it enjoys
the advantage of daylight, which is made to glance
down from the roadway above through long shafts
lined with white glazed tiles. From Baker Street
a branch line of the Underground Railway conveys
passengers northward, by St. John's Wood and
Marlborough Road Stations, to the Swiss Cottage,
within a few minutes' walk of the outskirts of
London, and a short distance of the breezy heights
of Hampstead.

Resuming our course towards the City, the next
station from Baker Street, which is reached through
another tunnel about half a mile long, is at Portland Road, near the top of Portland Place. This
is at what is called the "summit-level" of the line,
and two large circular openings have been constructed over the line for the purpose of ventilation. Smaller openings for the ventilation of the
tunnel have been made between other stations.
Large numbers are conveyed to this station, on
their way to the Regent's Park and the Zoological
Gardens. "It is a peculiarity of this district,"
says the author above quoted, "that, between the
semi-circular enclosure of Park Crescent and the
quadrangular space within Park Square, a tunnel
under the New Road has been for a long time in
existence, as a means of uniting the two enclosures.
This was familiarly known as the 'Nursery-maids'
Walk,' and was the means by which the children
of the residents in Park Crescent could avail themselves of the extra accommodation afforded them
by the enclosure of Park Square; and such was
the resistance offered by the inhabitants of this
part to the progress of the railway, that ascending
and descending gradients, to the extent of 1 in 100,
had to be introduced, so as to carry the line under
this subterranean thoroughfare, for the benefit of
the nursery-maids and children of this highly-genteel neighbourhood."

From Portland Road the line is continued, by a
tunnel rather under half a mile long, to Gower
Street. The station here is very similar in construction to that of Baker Street, being originally
lighted by the reflection afforded by white glazed
tiles from the roadway above. Since its construction, however, it has been opened up very
much to the upper air with very decided advantage
both to its light and ventilation. This is a convenient outlet for the country immigrants arriving
at the Euston Square Station of the London and
North-Western Railway; and it is also available
for those residing in the densely-populated district
of Tottenham Court Road. A tunnel, three-quarters of a mile in length, next brings the passenger to King's Cross Station, which is one of the
finest in point of construction of any on the line;
the roof especially is worthy of notice, for the
length and proportion of its span. Within the
station itself, the up and down lines from the Great
Northern and Midland Railway enter the King's
Cross Station, and thence to Farringdon Road
pass through a separate tunnel running parallel with
the Metropolitan line. In the formation of this
second tunnel immense engineering difficulties had
to be met, and were successfully accomplished, the
union of the two tunnels being effected upon the
"bell-mouth" principle, similar to that between
Edgware Road and Bishop's Road. The Midland
Railway, as we shall hereafter see, when we come
to Camden Town, was carried out by a triumph of
engineering skill, under the Grand Junction Canal.
Shortly before reaching King's Cross, the great
Fleet sewer crosses both the junction lines; and
during the construction of the aqueduct through
which it was ultimately to pass, it was necessary
that the sewage should not be interrupted for a
moment; moreover, in addition to the difficulties
connected with such a work, it may be stated that
the whole of the sewage had to be conducted
under the roadway; it now passes through an
immense wrought-iron tube, some dozen feet in
diameter, bedded in brickwork.

The line, on leaving King's Cross, takes a curve
in a southerly direction, and shortly afterwards
passes under the Fleet ditch a second time, by a
short piece of tunnelling, and then, after passing
through an open cutting, and another tunnel about
half a mile in length, the line passes under a bridge,
which serves as a viaduct to Ray Street, Clerkenwell, and carries the traffic over the railway.
Once more the line passes under the Fleet ditch;
the contents of this, which is within the stationyard of Farringdon Road, are conveyed across
the line in one span in a capacious wrought-iron
tube, and in the formation of the line at this point
considerable difficulty was experienced in consequence of the sewer on two or three different
occasions bursting its bounds, and thereby greatly
impeding the progress of the work. Close by
this sewer is another bridge for carrying the traffic
over the railway; it is constructed mainly of iron,
and was built in 18756, in order to form part of
the new direct thoroughfare which is designed to
connect Oxford Street with Old Street, St. Luke's.

It should be stated here that shortly before
emerging into the light of day at Farringdon Street,
the tunnel of the Midland and Great Northern
lines is made to dive from north-east to south-west
under that of the Metropolitan, which here is some
thirty feet below the surface, revealing the fact that
"even in the lowest depths there is a lower still,"
and displaying one of the greatest triumphs of the
engineers' art to be seen in the neighbourhood of
London. This gigantic "tunnel under another
tunnel" was carried into effect without the stoppage
of a single train on the Metropolitan Railway.
The illustration on page 229 represents the passage
of a Metropolitan train over the Great Northern
and Midland lines near Farringdon Road Station.

Farringdon Road Station is very spacious, and,
with the goods dept of the Great Northern Railway, cover a large space of ground between the
main road and Turnmill Street. This station was
at first the utmost limit of the line Citywards; but
by degrees the railway has been gradually extended
eastward, the intention of the Metropolitan being
ultimately to form a connection with the other end
at the Mansion House Station. After leaving
Farringdon Road the line passes, by means of a
short tunnel, under the Metropolitan Meat Market
at Smithfield, and then, after once more coming
into daylight, enters the large and well-built station
of Aldersgate Street, the lines being duplicated.
Here there is a junction of the main line with that
of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway,
which passes under Smithfield, then on under Holborn Viaduct, and so on to Ludgate Hill in its way
southward. From Aldersgate Street, the Metropolitan Railway continues by a short tunnel and
an open cutting on to Moorgate Street, which was
for some time the farthest extent of the line in this
direction. In 1875 the line was continued to
Liverpool Street, where it forms a junction with
the Great Eastern Railway; and in November,
1876, the line was further extended to Aldgate.
After passing under Finsbury Circus towards the
Bishopsgate Station in Liverpool Street, the railway
tunnel is carried between the chapel of St. Mary's,
Moorfields, and Finsbury Chapel, and in the construction of this portion of the line considerable
engineering difficulties had to be surmounted.

In the meantime, other subterranean works in
connection with the modern system of locomotion
had been going on farther eastward; and by this
means the northern and south-eastern hemispheres
of London, so to speak, have been banded together
by the iron girdle of the East London Railway,
which, passing on through Whitechapel and Shadwell, and then through the old Thames Tunnel to
Rotherhithe and Deptford Road, terminates at New
Cross, where it joins the Brighton line.

Throughout the whole length of the various
systems of Underground Railways, it may be
safely asserted that the works are signal instances
of modern engineering skill and ingenuity. The
rails on the Metropolitan Line were originally laid
on the mixed-gauge principle, the rails themselves
having steeled surfaces given to them; but these
being found to be not of a very durable character,
were gradually replaced with others of solid steel,
which, although much more costly to lay down,
have been found to be more lasting, and consequently cheaper in the end. Within the last few
years, the broad-gauge rails have been taken up,
and only the narrow-gauge is now used.

TRIAL TRIP ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY, 1863.

So far as the engines and carriages are concerned, but little need be said here. The former
are fine, powerful machines, specially designed by
Mr. Fowler, the engineer-in-chief; and they are
arranged either to exhaust the steam through the
chimney in the ordinary way, or else to condense
it in tanks which are placed on either side of the
engine, and contain 1,000 gallons of watera
supply sufficient for the double journey. The
carriages are extremely large and roomy vehicles,
the united bodies being no less than forty feet long.
The first-class carriages are luxuriously fitted up,
and are constructed to carry sixty passengers;
whilst the second and third classes carry as many
as eighty persons respectively, and very frequently
more. The mode of lighting the carriages is by
gas, which is carried in long india-rubber bags,
within wooden boxes, arranged on the tops of the
carriages, and extending from one end to the other
of each set of vehicles composing the train. "These
gas bags," says the writer of the work above referred to, "are weighted on the top, and, as the
weights descend, an indicator, at the side of each
box, points either to E or F, to show how near
the india-rubber reservoirs are to being either empty
or full. The jets in the carriages are supplied by
means of a gas-pipe in communication with the
bags on the roofs, and extending from the back of
the vehicles themselves, while along the lower part
of each portion of the train runs the 'main,' as it
were, by which the bags are replenished from the
gasometers established at either end of the line.
The gasholders are kept charged with supplies from
the neighbouring gas-works, and are so heavily
weighted that the elastic bags along the top of the
carriages can be filled (by means of 'hydrants'
and flexible tubes in connection with the gasholders) in the short space of two or three minutes.
The light thus afforded to the passengers is so bright
as to utterly remove all sense of travelling underground, and entirely dissipate that nervousness
which the semi-obscurity of ordinary oil-lighted
railway carriages gives to the sensitive during their
transit through the tunnels on other lines."

From the rapid rate at which the trains are dispatched one after the other on this line, it will be
readily conceived that the system of signalling must
be one of the greatest exactitude in order to ensure
perfect safety. The system, however, is so simple,
and at the same time so certain, as "to require no
exercise of skill on the part of the signal-man, but
rather to bring the official working them down to
the level of the unerring machine upon which he
has to operate." The following extract from the
Railway News gives all that need be said on this
subject:

ENTRANCE TO THE CLERKENWELL TUNNEL FROM PARRINGDON STREET.

"We will suppose," says the writer of a clever
article upon "Underground Signals," in the publication before mentioned, "the signal-man to be at
Baker Street; on the down line he will have possession of the line to the Edgware Road Station, on
the up line possession of the length to Portland
Road Station. In the front of each dial there is
an opening, in which appears, as the case may be,
the words 'Line clear' on a white ground, or,
'Train on line,' on a red ground. Below this are
two keys, one red and one white, having over them
corresponding words to those which appear in the
opening on the face of the telegraph dial. Press
the white key, and the words 'Line clear' are
shown on the instruments; press the red key, and
the words 'Train on line' appear. There is no
movement of needles to the one side or the other,
which may be liable to be mistaken; there is no
sound of a bell, which may be misunderstood.
The needle of the dial does not point to a communication which it wishes to make, but it carries
on its back the actual message, and presents it to
the sight of the person for whom it is intended.

"Let us see how this system is carried into actual
practice. A passenger train is about to start from
Edgware Road on the up-line. The signal-man
presses down a key, which rings a bell at Baker
Street to call attention. This bell has a conducting
wire, entirely separated from that connected with
the signalling instruments, so that no mistake can
occur in the transmission of signals. The beats on
the bell are made to describe the approaching train,
whether it be a Metropolitan, Great Western, or
Great Northern one. Having thus called attention,
he presses down the red key, and at Baker Street
is instantly shown the signal 'Train on line.' Baker
Street replies by repeating the beats on the bell, and
pegs down the key which corresponds to the signal
shown. Edgware Road puts the signal to 'Danger,'
to prevent any up-line train from following, and
Baker Street keeps the signal pegged down until
the train has not only reached him, but has actually
passed out of the station. After the train has left
Baker Street it is signalled on to Portland Road,
just as it had previously been sent on from the
Edgware Road. The Baker Street sends back to
Edgware Road three beats on his bell, re-pegs his
red key, presses down a white key, which shows
'Line clear.' The signal is acknowledged, the white
key pegged down by the signal-man at Edgware
Road, who thus takes possession of the line up to
Baker Street. When the train has left Portland
Road Station, Baker Street is signalled to, just as
Edgware Road had been, and the up-line is clear
to the next station. And so the work goes on from
station to station throughout the day, and trains
may run with safety at intervals of two minutes,
whereas, without these signals, it would not have
been possible to run more frequently than every
quarter of an hour."

The question of ventilation of the Underground
Railway gave rise to considerable discussion at the
time of the formation of the line, and, indeed, long
afterwards, and various means were adopted by
which that "vexed question" could be set at rest.
Instead of the coal used on ordinary lines the company have used coke made from the best and finest
Durham coal, and burnt in the ovens for a very
long time, in order to deprive it of every trace of
sulphur and other objectionable exhalations. We
have already seen how that the engines are specially
constructed to exhaust the steam during the transit
of the trains. By these means the engines may be
said to "hold their breath," as it were, whilst
travelling through these lower regions, and thus
little or no foul sulphurous fumes are evolved from
the chimney, nor waste steam discharged. One
part of the line, nevertheless, from some cause or
other, remained in which the foul air continued to
cause annoyance and discomfort to passengers.
This extended from the Portland Road to the
Gower Street Station. Between these stations the
arch of the railway tunnel is crossed nearly at right
angles by the tube of the old Pneumatic Despatch
Company. In a lucky moment the "happy thought"
arose that this tube might be made subservient
towards the removal of the foul air in the tunnel
beneath, and the more efficient ventilation of the
railway in its immediate vicinity. In 1874 this idea
was most successfully worked out and practically
applied in a very ingenious manner to the desired
purpose by Mr. De Wylde, the engineer to the
Pneumatic Despatch Company, who was materially
assisted in his labours by Mr. Tomlinson, the
engineer of the Metropolitan line.

From the above description of the Underground
Railway, it will be at once perceived that there is
scarcely any part of London or any of its outlying
districts which cannot now be reached by rail, and
by trains that are arriving and departing every few
minutes. The Metropolitan Railway is, indeed,
a mighty underground undertaking, by which, in
half an hour, the heart of the City is reached with
comfort and safety from Hammersmith or Notting
Hill, Kensington or Brompton, and nearly all
round London. Travelling seems to have reached
its climax, when what was half a day's journey
twenty years ago, is done now in a quarter of a
hourfor it requires but some such interval of time
as that between shaking hands with friends in parting at the Mansion House, and doing the same
with others on meeting in Camden Town. The
Metropolitan Railway service appears to be capable
of almost indefinite extension. There are now six
companies which are exclusively devoted to the
metropolitan railway trafficthe Metropolitan,
the Metropolitan District, the Metropolitan and St.
John's Wood, the North London, the East London,
and the London, Chatham, and Dover.

The "District Railway" owns nearly half of the
whole line, and has the advantage, in one respect;
its portion of the stations being all open to the daylight, and the tunnels not so frequent. Its terminal
station, the "Mansion House," within a few
minutes' walk of the Exchange, the Bank, St. Paul's
Cathedral, and the heart of the City, is a handsome, light, commodious building, spanned with
an iron and glass roof. The space is necessarily
somewhat cramped in a spot where land is said
to be more valuable than anywhere else in the
world. There are only three lines of rails, and the
same number of platforms; but although, from
8 a.m. to 8 p.m., thirteen trains run in and out every
hour, this is found sufficient accommodation, even
when there is an unusual pressure of business; and
occasionally three trains have entered the station,
discharged their passengers, been re-filled, and
supplied with gas, in six minutes.

On leaving the Mansion House Station, the line
passes westward along under Queen Victoria Street,
to Blackfriars Bridge, where there is a station,
which, although the platforms are considerably
below the level of the outer roadway, is open to
the light of day. In the neighbourhood of Blackfriars Bridge, the railway is crossed by a tramroad
for the conveyance of coals from the river to the
works of the City Gas Company; and nearly at
the same point the subway of the Embankment
rises to the surface. The low-level sewer crosses
obliquely beneath the railway; and the Fleet Ditch
also crosses beneath it at right angles, previous to
joining the low-level sewer. The "Fleet" formerly
opened and discharged its contents into the river
under the first arch of the bridge.

At various points of the railway sewers pass
beneath it to enter the low-level main sewer; and
the summits of these sewers, as originally constructed, would rise somewhat above the permanent
way. It was, of course, impossible to lower them,
and the difficulty was surmounted by giving a depressed shape to portions that pass under the line.
The original sewers presented elliptical sections,
with the major axis vertical, and the new portions
have their major axis horizontal. In this way the
necessary area is preserved, and the line is only so
far interfered with that the sleepers are carried over
the sewers on a bridge of iron plates. The railway
itself is drained by a barrel-drain along the "sixfoot" space, and this drain is carried below each
sewer and back to its former level by four rectangular bends. The original opening of the Fleet
Ditch was immediately to the westward of Blackfriars Bridge, and under the management of the
Board of Works its new opening has been made
beneath the bridge. Beneath the station it was
found necessary, at the construction of the works,
to lower the level and contract the area of the
diversion of the Fleet which had to be made, by
which it emptied its contents into the river on the
east side of the bridge; for this purpose another
diversion was made to the eastward of the first,
leaving it to the north, and re-entering it at the
south of the station. When this was completed,
the portion of the first diversion that passed under
the station was converted into a barrel-drain by
iron tubing seven feet in diameter; and then the
second diversion was closed. The low-level sewer
at first passed beneath the barrel-drain, but was
eventually connected with the Fleet channel, so as
to relieve the latter of some portion of the contents.
The tramroad to the City gas-works passes under
the roadway of the Embankment, and over the
railway; and the subway of the Embankment is
also carried over the railway. Close by Blackfriars Station, in Earl Street, nearly equal difficulties were encountered on a smaller scale, from
the number of gas-pipes, water-pipes, and other
channels that crossed the line near together, and
at all possible levels. These pipes, however, have
all been re-arranged in a regular and orderly manner.
The difficulty of finding room for all these requirements was extreme, as may well be imagined.

A short piece of tunneling along the Victoria
Embankment brings us to the Temple Station,
which is the nearest outlet for the eastern parts of
the Strand. Within the precincts of the Temple, as
a precautionary measure against the interruption of
legal studies by noise and vibration, the sleepers
rest upon a layer of tan, six inches in thickness,
placed immediately below the ballast. This plan
had already been adopted, with good results, in the
neighbourhood of Westminster Abbey, and the
Benchers of the Temple made its employment one
of the conditions of their approval of the line.

The Embankment, beneath which the line passes
on by Somerset House and Charing Cross (where
there is another station) to Westminster Bridge, is,
we need hardly say, one of the most successful
pieces of engineering skill which this country has
ever produced; but it was not effected without considerable risk and danger to surrounding property;
indeed, owing to the undermining of the foundation
of King's College, which adjoins Somerset House,
the roof of the hall gave way, and fears were at one
time entertained as to the safety of the building.
Besides the railway tunnel there are other immense
subways passing along it, some of which serve the
purposes of the main drainage, the low-level sewer
of the northern system, as we have already shown,
passing this way in its course from Pimlico towards
the east of London. The railway also passes
under the first arch of Waterloo Bridge. For
some portion of the distance between Charing
Cross and Westminster Bridge the line is covered
in by iron girders, placed obliquely, and connected
by brickwork; this was so arranged in order to
support a garden attached to the offices of the
Board of Control.

The distance from Blackfriars Station to Westminster Bridge Station is 2,200 yards, and the
stations are very nearly equidistant. Instead of
the semi-circular arched roof usually found in other
tunnels, that in the Embankment is flat, formed of
transverse iron girders placed about eight feet apart,
with shallow brick arches between them, and supported on brick walls, about fourteen feet in height,
the south of which is in contact with the concrete
of the Embankment.

At Westminster there is a branch tunnel or subway which passes under the roadway at the foot of
the bridge to the Houses of Parliament. In the
construction of the tunnel between Westminster
Bridge and the St. James's Park Stations, great
difficulties presented themselves from the irregular
nature of the soil, but these were in the end surmounted; and in the course of the excavations at
this point quantities of bones of animalssupposed
to be those of the mammoth and other antediluvian
animalswere unearthed. Another difficulty arose
from the fear of the excavations weakening the
foundations of the Abbey. The line passes almost
close under the walls of St. Margaret's Church and
Westminster Abbey, and emerges into daylight
close by Queen Anne's Gate, near the St. James's
Park Station. The next station is Victoria, which
is situated close to that of the Brighton and the
London, Chatham, and Dover Railways. Leaving
this station the line proceeds, by a short tunnel,
under Eccleston and Ebury Streets, Pimlico, to
Sloane Square, where there is a large and commodious station. A few minutes' ride next brings us
to South Kensington Station, which, with its farstretching roof of iron and glass, is light and open.
Here we may be said to have got clear of "underground London," for although the line passes on
for some distance before it reaches Paddington,
which we made our starting point, a considerable
portion of it is open to the light of day. The
stations passed before arriving at Praed Street,
Paddington, are the Gloucester Road (whence there
are branches to West Brompton, Addison Road,
and Hammersmith); High Street, Kensington;
Notting Hill Gate; Queen's Road, Bayswater.

One feature of the Metropolitan and of the District Railway is the facility which it gives to working
men who, through the demolition of small dwelling-houses in London, or from other circumstances,
may have taken up their abode in the western
suburbs. When the Metropolitan Company obtained their extension to Moorgate Street, the Act
of Parliamentobtained mainly through the instrumentality of the late Lord Derbyimposed upon
them the condition that one train daily should run
to the City in the morning, and one train from the
City at night, "for the convenience of workmen
living in the environs," and that the fares should be
one penny for each single journey by such trains.
The experiment was tried before the formation of
the line between Farringdon Road and Moorgate
Street; and in one of the trains so run, the author
of the brochure quoted from above thus gives us his
experiences of the class of men he met with:

"Our object was to ride in the train with the
workmen themselves, and to hear from them what
benefits they derived from the institution. Early as
was the hour, we found the platform all of a bustle
with men, many of whom had bass baskets in
their hands, or tin flagons, or basins done up in red
handkerchiefs. Some few carried large saws under
their arms, and beneath the overcoat of others one
could just see a little bit of the flannel jacket worn
by carpenters, whilst some were habited in the grey
and clay-stained fustian peculiar to ground labourers.
There was but little time for the arrangement of
plans with the general manager ere the whistle
screamed, and we were thrust into a third-class
compartment, which we found nearly filled with
plasterers, joiners, and labourers.

"The subject of our mission was soon opened.
All present agreed that the cheap and early trains
were a great benefit to the operative classes. The
labourer assured us that he saved at least two
shillings a week by them in the matter of rent only.
He lived at Notting Hill, and would have to walk
six miles to and from his work every day if it were
not for the convenience of the railway. He had
two rooms now, almost in the open country, for
the same price as he would have to pay for one in
some close court in the heart of London, besides
what he saved in medicine for his wife and family.
A plasterer, who had to go all the way to Dockhead to his work, who was a fellow-passenger, took
up the matter, and said that 'it was impossible to
reckon up how much workmen gained by what is
called the Workmen's Trains, especially if you took
into account the saving in shoe-leather, the gain in
health and strength, and the advantage it was for
men to go to their work fresh and unfatigued by a
long walk at the commencement of the day.' The
plasterer, too, was great on the moral effects (it is
astonishing how working men delight in the morality
of a question), and urged, with some force, that the
best thing in connection with such institutions was,
that it enabled operatives to have different sleepingrooms for themselves and their young children.

"As the train stopped at Edgware Road, Baker
Street, Portland Road, and, indeed, every other
station, fresh crowds were waiting on the platform,
ready to avail themselves of it; and when we
reached Gower Street, we and the manager got
into another carriage, so as to be able to consult
as many working men as possible on the matter.
Here we found a butcher on his way to the meatmarket, a newsvendor going to fetch his morning
papers, and others connected with the building
trade. We spoke to a carpenter in a grey slouch
hat, and with the brass top of his foot-rule just
peeping out of the side pocket of his trousers. He
was one of those strange growling and grumbling
characters so often met with among the working
classes. For his part, he didn't see that working
men were in any way gainers by the cheap trains,
as it cost them is a week for travelling. All he
knew was, that he paid about the same rent out at
Paddington as when he lived in Clerkenwell; for
landlords were landlords, all the world over. If a
man did save Is. a week, what was it? Only a pint
of beer a day. Besides, the company hadn't kept
faith with the public; they had made grand speeches
in Parliament about the great benefits they were
going to confer on the working classes by giving
them penny trains, and directly they got their bill
passed, by such humbug, they began by charging
them twopence. What was a working man to save
upon that, he should like to know?

"'Come, come, mate,' said another workman,
'fair's fair. Just think of what these here trains
save you at night after your work's over. If a man
gets home tired after his day's labour, he is inclined
to be quarrelsome with his missus and the children,
and this leads to all kinds of noises, and ends in his
going off to the public for a little bit of quiet; while
if he gets a ride home, and has a good rest after he
has knocked off for the day, I can tell you he is as
pleasant a fellow again over his supper. Besides, if
a chap's on piece-work, as I am, it makes a good
bit of difference in his earnings at the week's end,
whether he goes to his work fagged with walking a
long way to it, or comes fresh to it after a ride.'

"On our way to Farringdon Street we passed
the early down-train; and this, we could just see,
was full of costermongers coming from the Saturday
morning's market. At a later part of the same
day we travelled from the City to Bishop's Road,
in company with other men returning from their
work. Many of these lived out at Silver Street,
Notting Hill. One man in particular was very
communicative, and delighted to go into all the
details of what he saved by being able to live in
the suburbs. 'He had a six-roomed house, with
a kitchen,' he said, 'and for this he paid 28 the
year, rent and taxes. He let off four rooms for
8s. the week, so that he stood at about 3s. a week
rent for himself, and for the same accommodation
as he had now he would have to pay from 6s. to
6s. 6d. the week in some wretched dog-hole in
town.' He certainly found that things were very
dear out at Kensington, where he lived; but this
made hardly any difference to him, for he did
all his marketing at Newgate Market after his
work was over, early on the Saturday. 'See here,
sir,' said he, spreading open the bass-basket on his
knee, 'there's a prime bit of ribs of beef for the
young ones to pitch into to-morrow. I gave 7d.
the pound for it, and where I hang out it would
have cost me 10d. or 11d. There ain't so much
difference in vegetables, and bread's pretty well
the same price everywhere. It's mostly people in
the building trade as comes up by these trains to
the heavy jobs in the City. No one can say what
benefit the trains are to men like us. Why, I've
made seven and a half days this week, and if it
wasn't for the convenience of them, I shouldn't
have done six.'"

So much for the Underground Railway. This,
however, although a very gigantic work, is but a
fraction, so to speak, of the intricate and almost
inexplicable labyrinth of arteries and sinews that
go to make up the great body of "Underground
London." Mr. Charles Knight, in his "London,"
has pithily remarked:"Could we imagine that
this great capital of capitals should ever be what
Babylon isits very site forgottenone could not
but almost envy the delight with which the antiquaries of that future time would hear of some
discovery of a London below the soil still remaining.
We can fancy we see the progress of the excavators
from one part to another of the mighty but, for a
while, inexplicable labyrinth, till the whole was
cleared open to the daylight, and the vast system
lay bare before them, revealing, in the clearest
language, the magnitude and splendour of the
place to which it had belonged, the skill and
enterprise of the people. Let us reflect for a
moment upon what this system accomplishes. Do
we want water in our houses? We turn a small
instrument, and the limpid stream from the springs
of Hertfordshire, or of Hampstead Heath, or from
the river Thames, comes flowing, as it were by
magic, into our vessels. Do we wish to get rid
of it when no longer serviceable? The trouble
is no greater; in an instant it is on its way
through the silent depths. Do we wish for an
artificial day? Through that same mysterious
channel comes steaming up into every corner of
our chambers, counting-houses, or shops, the subtle
air which waits but our bidding to becomelight!
The tales which amuse our childhood have no
greater marvels than these." Yet, as the very
nature of a system of
underground communication prevents it from
being one of the shows
of the metropolis, we
seldom think of it; unless, indeed, when passing through the streets
we at times come across
an open sewer that has
been laid bare for repairs or some other purpose; or when we see
an artisan at work in
repairing a breach in a
telegraph wire, when
the fibrous substance
which forms the means
of transmitting the electrical communication is
lying gathered up in
coils from its receptacle
beneath the pavement.
The sewage, the gas and
water supply, and the
electric telegraph, then,
are the matters which we
have to consider in the
present chapter.

INTERIOR OF SUBWAY, HOLBORN VIADUCT.
(From Mr. Haywood's Report.)

The Fleet Ditch, of
which we have given
an account in a previous volume, (fn. 1) was for
centuries the principal
channel for conveying
the sewage of the metropolis into the Thames.
Its commencement was
from springs on the
southern slopes of the ridge of Hampstead and
Highgate Hills; and in its course towards the
Thames at Blackfriars it received the drainage of
parts of Hampstead and Highgate, of all Kentish
Town, Camden Town, and Somers Town, of parts
of Islington, Clerkenwell, and St. Sepulchre, and
nearly all that part of the Holborn division lying
south of the Euston Road, from Paddington to
the City. The private drains from each house
entered the main sewer in all cases about two feet
from its level; and these drains carried off every
description of refuse, with the exception of such
as was conveyed away by the London dustman.
Scientific experiments were made to discover the
best and most economical mode of cleansing
the sewers, the deposit
at the bottom of which
averaged one and a-half
inches yearly, and an
ingenious apparatus was
invented for using water
in flushes, by which the
sewers were effectually
scoured. "The water
used for forming a head
was contracted for with
the water companies,
and amounted to about
20,000 hogsheads yearly.
When a sewer was to be
cleansed, the water was
backed up, and when let
off, it cleansed the sewer
to an extent proportionate to the quantity of
head-water, the fall of
the sewer, and the depth
of the deposit. The
breaking-up of streets to
cleanse the sewers, when
their contents were deposited on the surface,
was avoided by means
of a flushing apparatus.
Under the old system,
the deposit accumulated
at the bottom of the
sewer, until the private
drains leading into it
became choked; and it
was only from the complaints arising from this
circumstance that the Commissioners of Sewers
became aware of the state of the main drain, and
that smaller drains, connected with the main sewer,
were generally choked also."

In 1847, the eight boards of commissionerscomprising those for the City, Westminster,
Holborn and Finsbury, Tower Hamlets, Poplar
and Blackwall, Surrey and Kent, Greenwich and
St. Katherine'swere superseded by one commission, termed "The Metropolitan Commissioners
of Sewers," whose members were nominated by the
Government, and during the nine succeeding years
six new and differently-constituted commissions
were successively appointed; but throughout this
period they appear to have been unable to mature
and carry out works of any magnitude with the
view of remedying the evils arising from the sewage
flowing into the Thames. In 1854, Mr. Bazalgette,
the chief engineer to the Commissioners of Sewers,
was directed to prepare a scheme of intercepting
sewers, intended to effect the main drainage of
London, and Mr. Haywood was associated with
him for the northern portion. These plans remained under consideration until the formation of
the Metropolitan Board of Works, two years later,
when fresh plans for the drainage of the metropolis
were drawn up by Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph)
Bazalgette. After some further delay, these plans
were eventually adopted, and the works were commenced in 1859. The chief object sought to
be attained by the main drainage works was the
interception of the sewage, so as to divert it from
the river near London. New lines of sewers were
accordingly constructed, laid at right angles to
those already existing, and a little below their
levels, so as to intercept their contents and convey
them to outfalls about fourteen miles below London
Bridge. These outfalls are situated at Barking
Creek, in Essex, and at Crossness Point, in Erith
Marshes. As large a proportion of the sewage
as practicable is by this means carried away
by gravitation into the salt water, and for the
remainder a constant discharge is effected by
pumping with powerful engines and machinery.
At the outlets the sewage is received into reservoirs, situate on the banks of the Thames, and
placed at such a level as will enable them to
discharge into the river at or about the time of
high water. By this arrangement the sewage is
not only at once diluted by the large volume of
salt water in the Thames at high water, but is also
carried by the ebb tide to a point in the river
some twenty-six miles below London Bridge, and
the possibility of its return by the following tide
within the metropolitan area is by this means
effectually prevented.

SECTION OF THE HOLBORN VIADUCT, SHOWING THE SUBWAYS.
(Taken by permission from Mr. Haywood's Report.)

The drainage of London on the north side of
the Thames is effected by three lines of sewers,
the High Level, the Middle Level, and the
Low Level. The first of these commences by a
junction with the old Fleet sewer, at the foot
of Hampstead Hill, and passes through Upper
Holloway, Stoke Newington, and Hackney Wick,
to Abbey Mills pumping-station, near Plaistow;
the second commences at Bayswater, and skirting
Hyde Park, passes along Oxford Street, High
Holborn, and by the railway-station in Farringdon
Road, and Old Street Road, and joins the High
Level sewer at Old Ford; whilst the Low Level
sewer, with its branches, extends from Chiswick
and Acton to Abbey Mills, passing on its way by
Chelsea and Pimlico, where we have already
noticed the large pumping-station, (fn. 2) and so on by
the Houses of Parliament, and along the Victoria
Embankment. From the pumping-station at Abbey
Mills the drainage is conveyed across Plaistow
Marshes by the outfall sewer to the reservoir at
Barking Creek. On the south side of the Thames
the intercepting sewers extend from Upper Norwood, Clapham, and Putney, in three main lines,
to Deptford, where they unite, and thence pass on
through Charlton and Woolwich, and across Plumstead Marsh to the pumping-house and reservoir
at Crossness Point.

It need hardly be mentioned that during the
formation of this vast net-work of sewerscomprising, as it does on the whole, something over
1,300 milesa large number of ancient remains
of animals, coins, and curiosities, were found; they
consisted chiefly of the bones of elephants, whales,
and horns of deer and oxen, with some flint implements of war, and human skulls, stone and
leaden coffins, and a number of Roman coins.

It must not, however, be supposed that the
various railway tunnels are all, or nearly all, the
wonders of subterranean London, for the arrangements for supplying the metropolis with gas and
water, and for carrying off the drainage from the
streets and dwellings of the entire metropolis, are
equally wonderful; and as these present a terra
incognita to most readers of the educated classes,
they may well claim a brief notice here.

Any one who has seen London at night from
some elevation in the neighbourhoodsay Hampstead Heath, or Sydenham Hillwill readily understand how minute, as well as extensive, must
be the network of pipes overspreading its soil a
few feet below the surface, to afford an unfailing
supply of gas to illuminate such a vast space as is
spread out before him. Thirty years after the
general introduction of gas for the lighting of the
metropoliswhich took place in 1814there were
no less than eighteen public gas-works in London
and its immediate vicinity, and twelve public gasworks companies; the capital employed in works,
pipes, tanks, gas-holders, apparatus, &c., amounted
to the sum of 2,800,000, and the yearly revenue
derived represented nearly 500,000. 180,000
tons of coal were annually used in the making of
gas; 1,460,000,000 cubic feet of gas were made
in the year; 134,300 private burners were supplied
to about 400,000 customers; there were 30,400
public or street consumersabout 2,650 of these
were in the City of London; 380 lamp-lighters
were employed; 176 gas-holders, several of which
were double ones, capable of storing 5,500,000
cubic feet; 890 tons of coal were used in the
retorts in the shortest day, in twenty-four hours;
7,120,000 cubic feet of gas were used in the
longest night (say 24th of December); and about
2,500 persons were employed in the metropolis
alone in this branch of manufacture. Between
the years 1822 and 1827 the consumption of gas
was nearly doubled; and within the next ten
years it was again nearly doubled; and since 1837
these figures must be trebled. Since 1841, when
the above statistics were taken, many of the gas
companies have amalgamated; and in 1872 their
number was reduced to nine, a number which has
since been slightly increased. One advantage of
the amalgamation of the different companies is
that the consumer's interests are more effectually
provided for, and that the gas is supplied at a
lower price and better in quality.

In a previous chapter we have spoken of the
pipes that were laid from the conduit at Bayswater (fn. 3)
in order to supply the City with water. We learn
from Stow that this arrangement dated from the
time of Henry III., when" the river of the Wells,
the running water of Walbrook, the bourns, and
other the fresh water that were in and about the
City, being in process of time, by encroachment for
buildings, and otherwise heightening of grounds,
utterly decayed, and the number of the citizens
mightily increased, they were forced to seek sweet
waters abroad"at the request of the king, powers
were "granted to the citizens and to their successors by one Gilbert Sanford, to convey water
from the town of Tyburn, by pipes of lead, into the
City." Besides the conduits which were set up in
Cheapside, Leadenhall, Fleet Street, and other
public places, "bosses" of water were also provided
in different parts, which, like the conduits, in some
places drew their supply from the Thames. The
conduits and water-heads, as we have already had
occasion to show, used to be regularly visited in
former times by the Lord Mayor "and many
worshipful persons, and divers of the masters and
wardens of the twelve companies." During these
early days the water had to be brought from the
conduits to the dwellings of the inhabitants in
pitchers or other vessels. It was not until 1582
that any great mechanical power or skill was applied
in providing London with water; in that year, however, Peter Morris, a Dutchman, made at London
Bridge a "most artificial forcier," by which water
was conveyed into the houses. We are told how
that, on the Lord Mayor and Aldermen going to
view the works in operation, Morris, to show the
efficiency of his machine, caused the water to be
thrown over St. Magnus' Church. The water-works
at the bridge were famous for a long time as one of
the sights of London. In 1594 water-works of a
similar kind were erected near Broken Wharf,
which supplied the houses in West Cheap and
around St. Paul's, as far as Fleet Street. This was
all that was accomplished in the way of supplying
London with water up to the appearance of Hugh
Middleton, "citizen and goldsmith," upon the
scene, early in the reign of James I. It seems that
power had been granted by Elizabeth for cutting
and conveying a river from any part of Middlesex
or Hertfordshire to the City of London, with a limitation of ten years' time for the accomplishment of
the work; but the man to accomplish it was not
forthcoming. James I. confirmed the grant; and
then it was that Middleton came forward with the
offer of his wealth, skill, and energy. After long
search and deliberation two springs rising in Hertfordshire were fixed upon, and in 1608 the work
was actually commenced. Of the difficulties and
obstacles with which the worthy "citizen and goldsmith" met in the accomplishment of his self-imposed task, and also of the "New River," which
he formed, we have spoken in our account of
Islington. (fn. 4)

When London, however, mustered beyond a
million of inhabitants, even the "New River" failed
to give an adequate supply of water to the mouths
and the houses which required it, and other companies were formed for the purpose of supplying
different parts of the great metropolis, and the
Chelsea and other water-works were started by
various companies in succession. Of some of
these we have already made mention.

In 18334, the quantity of water daily supplied
by the eight different water companies of London
was upwards of 21,000,000 imperial gallons. By
far the greatest portion of this was drawn from the
Thames, a small quantity from the springs and ponds
or Highgate and Hampstead, and the rest from
the River Lea and the New River. The capital
expended on the works of these companies then
amounted to more than 3,000,000, and their
gross rental to nearly 300,000. The number of
houses or buildings supplied by them was nearly
200,000, each of which had an average supply of
about 180 gallons, at a cost, also, on the average, of
about 30s. yearly. It is not easy to ascertain the
capital now sunk in the water-supply of the metropolis. But in 1876 the average daily supply of the
following eight companiesChelsea, East London,
Grand Junction, Kent, Lambeth, New River, Southwark and Lambeth, and West Middlesexwas
rather more than 120,000,000 gallons, upwards of
60,000,000 being taken from the Thames, and
the rest from other sources. The Thames supply
is drawn from various points, extending up the
river as far as Hampton and Ditton; the rest
comes to Londoners from the River Lea, and from
the chalk-wells in the neighbourhood of Crayford,
Chislehurst, Bromley, and Dartford, in Kent. The
net-work of pipes underground to convey the water
to almost every house in London, must indeed be
something surprising; and it presents a striking
contrast to the state of things which must have
existed when the ancient conduits were the only
sources of supply.

From the Report of the Examiner appointed by
Government to test the purity of our water, as
published by him in September, 1876, it appears
that the number of miles of streets which contain
mains constantly charged, and upon which hydrants
for fire purposes could at once be fixed, is 667.
The total number of hydrants erected at the above
date was 4,211, of which 2,695 were for private
purposes, 541 for street watering, 500 for public
use, and 475 for Government establishments. Of
the average daily supply of water in the metropolis one-fifth was delivered for other than domestic
purposes. There are 398 acres of reservoirs with
available capacity for the subsidence and storage
of 1,041,550,000 gallons of unfiltered water, and
covered reservoirs capable of storing 106,187,000
gallons of filtered water within the radius prescribed.

From an analytical report, made by Dr. Frankland, of the state of the Thames water supplied to
the metropolis during the month of October, 1876,
we learn that, taking unity to represent the amount
of organic impurity (on this occasion) in a given
volume of the Kent Company's water, the proportional amount in an equal volume of water
supplied by each of the other metropolitan companies was as follows:New River, 0'9; East
London, 2'4; West Middlesex, 2'8; Grand Junction, 3'3; Lambeth, 4'1; Chelsea, 4'2; and Southwark, 4'5. The water delivered by the five companies drawing their supply exclusively from the
Thames, compared with that delivered in August
and September, showed a marked deterioration
in quality, the proportion of contamination with
organic matter in solution having increased. The
West Middlesex Company delivered the best of
the Thames waters. The sample of the Southwark Company's water was "slightly turbid from
insufficient filtration, and contained moving organisms." The other samples of Thames water were,
however, clear and transparent. The water supplied by the New River and the East London
Companies was much superior in quality to that
drawn from the Thames; indeed, the New River
water, in chemical purity, is said to surpass even
the deep well water delivered by the Kent Company, which rises in the chalk hills about Crayford.

Previous to the completion of the Main Drainage
works, the system of drainage that had been adopted
in London for several years gave an amount of
sewerage almost equal in extent to the length of
every street, lane, and alley in the metropolis. On
the north side of the Thames there were about fifty
main sewers, measuring upwards of a hundred
miles; about twenty of equal magnitude, extending
some sixty miles, were on the south side of the
river. Add to these the private sewers, turnings,
alleys, subways, &c., the mileage of sewerage might
have been found of sufficient length to reach from
London to Constantinople. Through these secret
channels rolled the refuse of London, in a black,
murky flood, here and there changing its temperature and its colour, as chemical dye-works, sugar-bakers, tallow-melters, and slaughterers added their
tributary streams to the pestiferous rolling river.
About 31,650,000,000 gallons of this liquid was
poured yearly into the Thames, in its course through
London, and even this enormous quantity has only
partially drained the great city, leaving some parts
of it totally undrained for eight hours out of every
twelve. The river of filth struggling through its
dark channel sometimes rose to a height of five
feet, but generally from two to three. The system
of "flushing" the sewers, which we have already
described, tends greatly to purify them; and by
means of the artificial waterfalls thus secured much
of the filth is swept away which would otherwise
never be removed; and then, again, the sewers are
better ventilated by the introduction of iron gratings,
down which the daylight faintly struggles. Consequently, those whose business leads them to descend
into the sewers are not now, as they formerly were,
exposed to great risk of health and life.

Another important feature of "Underground
London" is its "subways." These are among the
latest advances which have been made in engineering skill, and have resulted from the peculiar
formation of some of the new streets, where, the
roadway being of a higher level than formerly,
owing to its construction upon arches, an opportunity has been seized upon for their erection.
Mr. Haywood, in his Report on the Holborn
Valley Improvement (1869), says:"The public
advantage resulting from the construction of subways has long been acknowledged; but, at the
same time, it is well known that the Gas and
Water Companies showed at first considerable
hesitation in using subways; and in the case of
those of Southwark Street, constructed under the
direction of the Metropolitan Board of Works,
it was not until the Board succeeded in obtaining
an Act of Parliament that the respective companies
placed their pipes in such subways."

In a previous volume (fn. 5) we have given a general
account of Holborn Viaduct, and of the improvement effected in the surrounding locality by the
wholesale demolition of small and crowded houses,
and the formation of new, broad, open streets; but
we may here say something on a part of that
mighty undertaking, which, from its being below
the surface of the roadway, is passed over unseen
and unthought-of by the majority of individuals
who cross over the Viaduct. The work of construction extended from Fetter Lane to Newgate
Street, between which points the new surfaces of
the Viaduct and roads, as compared with the former
lines of thoroughfare, may be thus summarised:At Hatton Garden, and in front of the tower of
St. Sepulchre's Church, the street surface is now
three feet higher than formerly; at Shoe Lane it
is upwards of twenty-four feet; and at Farringdon
Street Bridge there is a difference of more than
thirty-two feet.

From Fetter Lane to the Viaduct Circus, the
width of Holborn varies from 86 feet to 107 feet;
the Viaduct, from the Circus at its western end to
Giltspur Street at its eastern end, is 1,285 feet long
and 80 feet wide, the carriage-way being 50 feet
and the two footpaths each 15 feet in width. The
centre of the Viaduct is formed of a series of large
arches, and on both sides are subways for gas,
water, and telegraph pipes, and vaults for the use
of the houses. At the western end, between Fetter
Lane and the Circus, and at the eastern end, from
Snow Hill to Giltspur Street, the new levels were
made by filling up the ground removed from the
excavations for the foundations of the Viaduct.
Between Snow Hill and the Circus, the central
portions of the Viaduct are formed of a series of
arches, similar to those employed in railway
viaducts; each arch is twenty-one feet in span, and
forty-five feet in width, and the series is interrupted
only by the three bridges which had to be erected
on the line of the Viaductnamely, one over Shoe
Lane, another over Farringdon Street, and a third
over the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway.
A line of carriage-way, upwards of ten feet in width,
is left throughout the whole length of these vaults,
and entrances to them are provided from Farringdon Street and Shoe Lane. The vaults, which
are immediately adjacent to Farringdon Street and
Shoe Lane, are lighted by windows looking on to
those streets, and can be used for office purposes
by those having possession of them; arrangements
are also made by which access can be given to
each separate compartment, arch, or vault, by
forming a passage-way, beneath the subways and
over the sewers, from the houses on either side
of the Viaduct, so that the vaults can either be
let singly or in a group, as may be expedient.
Each vault is ventilated on to the surface of the
roadway by iron gratings, and in the spandrils
are lines of pipes, through which the water is
conveyed into the sewers below.

The "subways" extend along the Viaduct beneath the pavement on either side, and between
the larger vaults above described, and the vaults of
the houses on the outer sides of the Viaduct. They
are for the most part seven feet wide, and rather
more than eleven feet high, and their coverings are
formed of semi-circular arches in brickwork. The
internal faces of the subways are of white brick,
and the floors are of Yorkshire stone landings,
built into the walls on each side, and laid with
inclinations nearly the same as those of the surface
of the Viaduct. On the sides next to the central
vaults are channels cut in the landings, and at
intervals of twenty-four feet are openings, covered
with bell-traps, which communicate with the sewers
beneath. Immediately above these trapped openings to the sewers are iron pipes, which connect
with the drain-pipes in the spandrils of the central
vaults, and convey the water which may leak
through from the street surface into the sewer;
by means of these trapped openings, the rain water
which falls into the subways through the ventilators in the footways, and the water used in
washing the subways, escapes into the sewers.

Owing to the difference between the old and
new levels, and to the three bridges on the line of
the Viaduct, the subways necessarily vary in design
at about every eighty feet of their length; they
are carried over the London, Chatham, and Dover
Railway by an iron construction; on both sides
of Farringdon Street Bridge they are connected
with the Farringdon Street level by vertical shafts,
which terminate close to their entrances in Farringdon Street; at Shoe Lane they descend by shafts,
and are carried beneath that street, and are there
eight feet high and seven feet wide, formed with
brick sides, stone floors, and iron coverings. The
entrances to the subways at Farringdon Street are
by large iron gates, eight feet wide, and varying
from twelve feet to fifteen feet in height; in their
rear are wooden doors, which can be closed as
occasion may require. There are also entrances,
closed by iron doors, with open gratings over them,
in Shoe Lane; and at the eastern and western ends
of the Viaduct there are openings, very similar in
character to those ordinarily used over the entrances
to the sewers, but larger, beneath which are flights
of steps for the entry of workmen; means are
also provided by which pipes of large size can be
lowered into or taken out of the subways.

KING'S CROSS UNDERGROUND STATION IN 1868.

The ventilation of the subways is effected by
shafts rising from the crowns of the arches, terminating by large open gratings, let into the pavements; secondly, also, by circular flues, which start
from the crowns of the arches, and, passing over
the house vaults, are carried up in the party walls
of the houses, and terminate at the roofs; and
thirdly, by openings in the crowns of the arches
connecting with the lamp-posts on the public way,
the lower part of each post being perforated to
afford ventilation. The length of subway on the
southern side of the Viaduct, between Farringdon
Street and Shoe Lane, is lighted by gratings, filled in
with glass lenses, placed at intervals of forty feet,
which render it sufficiently light by day for the
purposes of inspection and work; the others have
no daylight, excepting that obtained through the
ventilating gratings in the footways, but provision
is made for artificial lighting throughout the whole
lines of subways by burners suspended from the
crowns of the arches, and connected with the gas
mains in the subways. To afford a supply of
gas and water to the houses, square iron tubes
are built into the walls, between the subways and
the house vaults, through which the service-pipes,
after being connected with the mains, are passed.
The provision made in the subways for carrying
the gas, water, and other pipes, consists of chairs
and brackets, which are either let into the stone
floor or project from the walls.

SECTION OF THE THAMES EMBANKMENT, 1867.
Showing (1) The Subway. (2) The Low-Level Sewer. (3) The Metropolitan District Railway. (4) The Pneumatic Railway.

As we learn from Mr. Haywood's Report, to
which we are indebted for much of the information
here given, it is some years since subways were
first constructed in various parts of London and
elsewhere, and pipes of various character have
been laid in one or other of them; but the Viaduct
subways were the first in which gas, water, and
telegraph pipes, with all the appliances necessary
to a complete system, were placed in one and
the same subway. The subways of the Viaduct
have been on several occasions lighted up with
gas and exhibited to the public; workmen have
executed repairs, and performed their ordinary
work in them; and no special precautions have
been found necessary as regards the use of lights
or fires, no explosions have taken place, nor has
such contraction or expansion of pipes resulted
from the variations of temperature, as materially
to affect either the gas or water supply; and the
system may be said to be successful.

Another important feature of "Underground
London" which we have not mentioned is the
Electric Telegraph. The old Electric Telegraph
Company, which for many years carried out the
entire system of telegraphy in England, formerly
had its head-quarters in Lothbury, in the heart
of the City, and, as such, became the originators
of that particular portion in the works of "Underground London" to which we have already incidentally referred. The company was incorporated
by Act of Parliament in 1846, and immediately
on its incorporation became the possessor, by
purchase, of all the patents previously granted to
Sir W. Fothergill Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone, the inventors or the introducers of the
electric system of telegraphy into England. "As
these patents gave the company an exclusive
right to the use of those essential principles on
which all electric telegraphs are based, we may
attribute much of the subsequent success of the
undertaking to the possession of this important
right." In an interesting article in Once a Week,
in the year 1861, entitled "The Nervous System
of the Metropolis," by the late Dr. Wynter, we
read that"It is anticipated that for a considerable
time the new telegraph will be principally confined
to the use of public offices and places of business.
Thus the principal public offices are already connected by its wires; and, if we might be permitted
the ugly comparison, the Chief Commissioner of
Police at Scotland Yard, spider-like, sits in the
centre of a web co-extensive with the metropolis,
and is made instantly sensible of any disturbance
that may take place at any point. The Queen's
Printer, again, has for years sent his messages
by one of these telegraphs between the House
of Commons and his printing-office near Fleet
Street. The different docks are put en rapport
with each other, and it will be especially applicable
to all large manufacturing establishments requiring
central offices in the City. Thus, the Isle of Dogs
and Bow Common, the grand centres of manufacturing energy, are practically brought next door
to offices in the centre of the City." About the
year 1864, the business of the Electric Telegraph
Company was taken in hand by the Government,
and transferred to the Post Office; since the erection of the new General Post Office, this department has had its head-quarters in St. Martin'sle-Grand, as we have already stated when describing that locality. (fn. 6)

Whilst we are on the subject of Underground
London, it may be desirable here to place on
record the fact of the establishment of a Pneumatic
Despatch Company about the year 1868. Its headquarters were in High Holborn, near the Little
Turnstile, and its object was the rapid transmission
of letters, newspapers, and small packages of goods,
by tubes laid under the street, and worked by
pneumatic agency. These tubes were laid between
the office and the Euston Square Station, and also
between Holborn and the General Post Office;
but the scheme was "in advance of the age,"
and it failed to answer; there was not enough
demand for its services to make it "pay" commercially; and so, after about eighteen months of
trial, it was abandoned. The traffic in the tube
was worked by alternate atmospheric pressure and
suction, the carriers, containing mails and parcels,
being by turns propelled to and drawn from
Euston Square by the pneumatic apparatus at
the Holborn station of the company. The same
process was, of course, followed with regard to the
length of tube between Holborn and the General
Post Office. Taking advantage of the proximity
of the tube to the tunnel of the Metropolitan
Railway in the vicinity of Gower Street, and of
the fact that air had to be drawn into the tube
after every carrier that was suckedso to speakfrom Euston to Holborn, it was determined to
open a communication between tube and tunnel,
and to utilise the exhausting power of the pneumatic machinery for ventilating this portion of the
Metropolitan Railway, and, as we have stated
above, this was ultimately accomplished. The
tubes are still in situ, and the scheme, doubtless, only sleeps for a time, to be revived when
London is ripe for its services.